This invention relates to the discovery and asexual propagation of a new variety of grapevine, Vitis vinifera cv. Sugrafourteen. The Sugrafourteen variety was discovered on Jun. 26, 1991 by Harry Joe Newby, Jr., in a commercial vineyard designated Sun World Ranch 543 near Thermal, Riverside County, Calif., and was evaluated and asexually propagated by David W. Cain. The variety was discovered as a spontaneous mutation on three canes from two spurs of a vine of Vitis vinifera cv. Sugraone, the subject of U.S. Plant Pat. No. 3,106, issued on Apr. 11, 1972. `Sugraone` is also known in the market place under the name `Superior Seedless`. The new variety is characterized by producing firm, low acid, early ripening, naturally large, red berries.
The new variety was first asexually propagated by David W. Cain in February 1992, in Wasco, Kern County, Calif., using hardwood cuttings. The Sugrafourteen grapevine maintains its distinguishing characteristics as hereinafter set out through successive asexual propagations using, for example, hardwood cuttings. This variety resembles its parent, Sugraone, being similar in time of bud break, time of ripening, fruit characteristics and vine growth habit. It can be distinguished from Sugraone by its distinct red skin color as opposed to the white skin color of Sugraone. An allelic polymorphism DNA comparison showed Sugrafourteen to be identical with Sugraone for all of the alleles included in the comparison.
The present variety resembles Ralli Seedless (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 9,865) in many respects. Both arose as spontaneous mutations of the Sugraone variety. Based on the patent description of Ralli, the present variety appears to differ from Ralli in possessing no red tinge to the foliage, and having slightly larger clusters of about 1.2 kilograms as compared with 0.5 to 0.75 kilograms for Ralli Seedless. Leaves of Sugrafourteen are indistinguishable from those of Sugraone whereas Ralli's leaves are described as having a more open upper leaf shape. Berries of Sugrafourteen are lighter pink and have more difficulty obtaining full coloration as compared to berries of Ralli Seedless.
Sugrafourteen differs from the commercially available red skin Flame Seedless variety by having distinctly larger, less uniform, and more ovate berry shape. It has lower acidity than Flame Seedless and ripens its fruit earlier.